Norma Shearer
Norma Shearer (her real name) was born in Montreal,
Canada, in 1902. Her father was supposedly a manic depressive,
but herr mother supported Norma in her desire to be a concert
pianist in her early years. However, by the time she was nine,
she decided she wanted to be an actress after seeing a vaudeville
show. When she was 16, her sister, Athole, suffered a serious
mental breakdown, and her father's company folded which resulted
in the family living in near poverty. Her mother took the two
daughters and left her husband. She sold their piano and bought
tickets to New York. She had also acquired a letter of introduction
for Norma to Florenz Ziegfeld. The three women arrived in New
York in January 1920, but the meeting with Ziegfeld was a disaster
as he criticized her lack of beauty. Shearer and her sister went
to Universal where they heard extras were being sought. Norma
was selected. She later got an extra part in "Way Down East"
(1920). When she confided her aspirations to D.W. Griffith, he
flatly told her she'd never make it. One of the reasons she was
not encouraged by these men was a supposed "cast" that
seemed to show a cross-eyed effect to her eyes. After consulting
a specialist, she resorted to daily exercises to correct this
"cast." Her drive for success also took her to theatrical
performances where she studied some of the great actresses of
the day. Needing money, she turned to modeling for such soap,
soft drinks, Kelly-Springfield Tires and more. A break came
her way when she got fourth billing in "The Stealers"
(1921), a minor picture. In February 1923, she received a telegram
from Irving Thalberg offering her a contract at Louis B. Mayer
Pictures. Her start was tentative as she was nervous and got called
to Mayer's office one day for not getting along with the director.
Mayer chewed her out, and she then became determined to "show
him" and went back to the set to do a commendable job. When
the merger of Mayer, Samuel Goldwyn Company and Metro Pictures
took place in 1924, she was cast in the company's first production,
"He Who Gets Slapped" along with Lon Chaney and John
Gilbert. Within the next year she was starring in her own pictures
and earning $1,000 a week. Over the next few years, her pictures,
though light fare, proved to be successful and her relationship
with future husband Irving Thalberg blossomed. She got her first
part in a prestigious picture when she was cast in Ernst Lubitsch's
"The Student Prince in Old Heidelberg" (1927). It was
at this time that Thalberg proposed, and they were married September
29, 1927. When talkies arrived, Shearer's first talking films
proved to be a success, a claim that many of the former popular
silent screen stars could make in their talkie debuts. She went
on to star in many prestigious MGM films such as "The Barretts
of Wimpole Street" 91934), "Romeo and Juliet" (1936),
"Marie Antoinette" (1938) and more. She was nominated
for the Best Actress Oscar six times but one only once for "The
Divorcee" in 1930. Thalberg died in 1936, and Shearer retained
a lawyer to ensure that Thalberg's estate received the profits
from the films with which he had been associated. In spite of
a contest from MGM, she won. She continued to be a major star
at MGM and after affairs with James Stewart and George Raft, she
married Martin Arouge, a former ski instructor who was 12 years
younger than she. She retired from films in 1942, and she and
Arrouge remained married until her death in 1983.
Selected films of this star available for viewing:
He Who Gets Slapped (1924)
The Devil's Circus (1926)
The
Student Prince in Old Heidelberg (1928)
Lady
of Chance (1928)
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